Today, people hunt animals for food and sport. The overall sport of hunting has increased in popularity because of the challenge and enjoyment of outdoor life and has become a major industry in the United States. Some hunters or naturalists will just walk through the forest; however, this limits the wildlife they will see due to either noise or visualization due to vegetation or simple because of a distance between the hunter and the target. A weapon such as a rifle is typically used in hunting. The weapon is aimed at long distances by use of a telescopic sight. Such a sight includes horizontal and vertical cross-hairs to provide aiming of the rifle toward the target. It is well known that if the target is located at greater distances from the rifle, the rifle angle above horizontal must be increased to compensate for the vertical drop by the projectile during its flight from the rifle to the target.
There have been numerous techniques proposed for adjusting rifle elevation as a function of the distance to the target. However, these various techniques are not fully successful in providing rapid, accurate and automatic elevation compensation for the aiming of a rifle toward a target. The art is replete with various other prior art references disclosing different prior art guiding devices.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,695,161 to Reed, for example, teaches an auto-ranging sight that includes an optical viewer that includes a reticle within the viewer. The reticle is a liquid crystal display having a plurality of horizontal lines which can individually be selected to be visible. A distance measuring device is provided for measuring distance from the sight to a target. Parameter information is input to a microprocessor to describe the flight of a projectile. The microprocessor also receives the distance information. The microprocessor then determines the required elevation for the optical viewer and attached weapon. It then selects one of the horizontal lines as the visible horizontal cross-hair. The operator then aligns the horizontal and vertical cross-hairs seen through the viewer such that the projectile can be accurately directed to the target. Optionally, a group of liquid crystal display vertical lines can be provided to accommodate windage adjustment for aiming the target. The range determination can be provided by systems using radar, laser, ultrasonic or infrared signals.
Another prior art reference, such as U.S. Pat. No. 6,199,286 to Reed et al., teaches an apparatus for the laser guidance of the aiming function used by the shooter, and fiber optics to increase the usability of the weapon. One type of adjustment is provided by a vertically movable and vertically adjustable cam member; and a second adjustment is provided through arm linkage which adjusts a rotatable laser holding member. Further features are the provision of a novel adjustable base means to adjust the laser for horizontal (windage) adjustment and also provided a standard of testing feature for testing vertical alignment. Fiber optics gives the shooter the means by which he is able to aim and shoot at farther targets in comparison to the lasers' limits of rangeability; and this fiber optic feature supplements the laser feature of the sight device, and the sight provides a novel sight pin feature.
Alluding to the above, United States Patent Publication No. 20110185619 to Finnegan et al., teaches a laser aiming device incorporated into a battery cap housing, which is in turn secured to such as an existing gun sight and which is in communication with the sights primary power source, such as a battery. The laser aiming device constitutes such as a diode and adjustment mechanism attached to a weapon sight battery source and, by virtue of a circuit closing cap insert, powering itself off the same.
Still another prior art reference, United States Patent Publication No. 20080184609 to Schulst, teaches a rear sight for a handheld weapon. The rear sight includes a tubular device that includes a tubular member comprising a material capable of transmitting visible light so that a target may be viewed through the tubular member, the tubular device, when mounted on a weapon, having at least two circle-like images at different locations along the length thereof that are visible when aiming the weapon on which the sight is mounted at a target by viewing the target through the tubular member. When aiming the weapon, a user will look through the tubular member towards the target and for proper alignment with respect to the target, will maneuver the weapon until the circle-like images are concentrically disposed.
The opportunity exist for a new design of a guiding device that is simple in manufacturing and operation and can be quickly engaged with a weapon to perform guiding functions in low light and bright light conditions and at variable distances.